Tuesday, November 25, 2014

A brief history of aerial bombing in the United States of America

We fought gladly and to the last drop of blood for America

-WEB Dubois

The history of aerial bombing in the United States of
America is a history of racial tension and class struggle, like many of our
histories. It is also filled with rumor and myth, another trait of American
history.

The first incident occurred just months before the second in
the year 1921. Aerial bombing had been invented just years before, in the rush
of invention to create new technologies for slaughtering people, in what was
then referred to as the Great War or the war to end all wars. Left over
armaments from that conflict played a role in both the first two
incidents. The first incident is what is called the Tulsa race riot. This
incident at the end of May of that year resembled the “race riots” of two
summers before, the “red summer” where murderous racial violence exploded
across the country. The Chicago riot of “red summer” occurred the same week a
dirigible exploded over the city, raining fire and bodies on office buildings
below, but this similarity is accidental. But like many of the race riots
before, a simple incident between a black male and white woman got out of
hand and fueled local racial tensions leading to a larger gathering of armed
white men who assaulted the Greenwood district in Tulsa, then the richest black
neighborhood in America sometimes called the “Black Wall Street”. Both
the besieged and the attackers were well armed, but the blacks were at the
disadvantage as their businesses and homes were set on fire, devastating the
district. Six biplanes left over from the world war were dispatched to fly over
the conflict. White officials claimed these were merely spotter planes there to
prevent a wider uprising. Eyewitnesses reported the planes were employed to
drop firebombs on the district and to snipe at the besieged.

The catastrophe of the First World War and the extraordinary
spiritual malaise that came afterwards were needed to arouse a doubt as to
whether all was well with the white man’s mind.

-Carl Jung

The second incident was mere months later in West Virginia.
This almost mythic event called the battle of Blair Mountain has been regarded
as one of the largest armed civil conflicts in the United States since the
Civil War. The United Mine Workers fought a pitched battle with local lawmen
and Baldwin Felts strikebreakers for five days. This episode was one of many
incidents in the bloody “Coal wars” of the previous decades. The strikebreakers
hired private planes to drop bombs left over from the world war on the
strikers, sometimes indiscriminately releasing them on villages. When the
army arrived to conclude the hostilities in the favor of the mine owners they
also employed bombers as surveillance planes and some said intimidation. The
miners captured one of the unexploded bombs the strikebreakers had engaged and
later displayed it at a trial.

I do not know if all cops are poets, but I know all cops
carry guns with triggers

-Ralph Ellison

The third major known incident of aerial bombing in the
United States of America took place some six decades later. This third and
final event under discussion involves the conflict between the city of
Philadelphia and the organization known as MOVE. MOVE, a black liberation
organization with back to the land overtones started by John Africa (all
members of the group employed the surname Africa) had a previous violent
conflict with the city in 1978 where the unsanitary nature of their compound
and incidents with police led to a raid. A policeman died in the firefight
under unclear circumstances and several of the members of the group were
charged with his death. The even more embattled organization (as the founder
John Africa insisted they be considered. Many argued convincingly that MOVE was
a cult, some called them a terrorist organization) moved to a working class
black neighborhood which they came in conflict with, setting up two bunkers on
the roof of their house, occasionally gesturing with weapons, and blaring
profane political speeches through loudspeakers at all hours of the day. This
mixed with compost, feces, gathered wood that filled the compound, alongside
concern for the treatment of the numerous children that MOVE had, all lead
inevitably to another conflict with the city in 1985. The police moved in (many
of who had been involved in the previous confrontation) and surrounded the
house and then evacuated the area. They issued a communique to MOVE that had
curious language.

Attention MOVE, this is America.

Soon tear gas and two high powered water jets were turned on
the compound. At some point heavy gunfire started. There is been much debate
which side did most of the firing, though the police at one point ran out of
ammo. The police commissioner citing the tactical advantage MOVE had with the
two bunkers on the roof decided to employ a drastic measure. He had a police
helicopter drop a satchel bomb on the roof of the house. It failed to destroy
the bunkers but started a fire. A decision was made to let the fire burn.
The water jets were turned off. The fire destroyed the compound; only two
people left it and survived an adult and a child, five other children and six
other adults died including John Africa. There were rumors that the police
fired on anyone trying to leave the fire. One adult was seen by witnesses
leaving and then running back in for an unknown reason. The ensuing blaze also
destroyed three blocks of the neighborhood.

This for the moment is what we know of aerial bombing in
America by Americans.

If this is Peace, it is peace with gothic undertones, as if
the ghosts of the past might be appeased for a moment but never exorcised in
their entirety